For some reason, Tibetan and Muslim chant, along with Eastern and Western Catholic chant all seem really prayerful to me. What I’ve been wondering I guess is if it’s “okay” to pray with the music from other religions?? I don’t really see anything wrong with it as the Spirit is always guiding every religious tradition closer to our own…as long as I’m not adopting their prayers?

For some reason, Tibetan and Muslim chant, along with Eastern and Western Catholic chant all seem really prayerful to me. What I’ve been wondering I guess is if it’s “okay” to pray with the music from other religions?? I don’t really see anything wrong with it as the Spirit is always guiding every religious tradition closer to our own…as long as I’m not adopting their prayers?

It would depend on the words being used. Do they contradict Christian beliefs?

For some reason, Tibetan and Muslim chant, along with Eastern and Western Catholic chant all seem really prayerful to me. What I’ve been wondering I guess is if it’s “okay” to pray with the music from other religions?? I don’t really see anything wrong with it as the Spirit is always guiding every religious tradition closer to our own…as long as I’m not adopting their prayers?

There is nothing wrong with that, many religions have spirituality which overlaps. Some parishes sing different music from different areas of the world (local Catholic songs). If music/chants from around the world are the key to your personal internal prayer connection then go for it.

In my opinion there’s a difference between Radical Islam and the kind that produces spiritual works of (in this question’s case) musical art. It is not threatening to Western society for a Muslim to produce a song that glorifies the same God that I worship. The nature of what I said is also not relativistic (a word? :shrug: ) . I said “The Spirit is always guiding every religious tradition closer to our own”, I did not say or even imply that these religions hold the Truth, but are rather demonstrating small reflections of It with their artforms.

I apologize if it seems like I set this thread up just to bait and attack. That was not my honest intention. What I am not sorry for is what I have said, because I believe it is in full agreement with what Christ and Tradition/The Church teaches.

I am not planning on worshiping or praying as they do, but there is something inherently spiritual in their music. I guess I knew the answer to my question all along

The fact that you just called them Mohammedans gives me all the infromation I need to consider your advice…

“Mahomet”, "Mahometan, and “Coran” are spellings used by the Founding Fathers of America.

…it’s not the spelling that annoyed me. It’s the name in itself. They don’t worship Mohammed. We worship Christ and that’s why we are proud to be called “Christians”. Besides I don’t care if the Pope himself used those spellings, I would politely and most humbly correct him because that isn’t even accurate transliteration from the original Arabic words “محمد” and “القرآن” (Muhammed and Qur’aan)

And you’ve not answered my question about large number of them becoming Christian.

sorry, I thought it was a hypothetical just to make a point. No, they are not flocking to Christianity. But that’s not really for us to understand how the Spirit moves I suppose. You must at lease admit that there is more understanding between our two religions than there has in the past…at least in the mainstream/non-radical Catholic or Muslim case. I have many Muslim friends who highly respect me and my religion because they know I’m Catholic and they see that we worship the same God. And same with me in respect to them. Do I think they have the whole Truth? Of course not, otherwise I would be Muslim. But I can’t command God to just make them believe what I believe. Every human has free choice, and by God’s definition He can’t violate that no matter how poor a choice one of His children has made. It seems contrary to the virtues of Faith and Hope to automatically discredit every single Muslim as some pagan who will never ever see the full Truth in Jesus Christ. After all, it was said that people of all nations and tongues will be at the throne of the Lamb, not just Westerners. There is a fine line between respecting other religions and relativism, but I don’t think I’ve crossed it.

I am always very hesitant to bring anything from another religion into my own. By being a part of another religion, they are inheritently flawed, and I don’t find my religion lacking in anything that I would need to try and fill it with something else.

How often have we heard of religious communities or just our fellow Catholics who are practicing something contrary to our faith? Prayers of muslims or meditating on nothing and trying to ‘empty themselves’? We’ve all met someone who calls themselves a “Christian Buddhist”.

These things start small. Just a small, seemingly harmless practice that then leads to more and more. As I said, they are inhereitently flawed by the fact that they are not Catholic in origin and, in fact, are anti-Catholic in origin. Why dabble in something not necessary? Why connect our spirituality to something tainted when we have those pure things already?

For some reason, Tibetan and Muslim chant, along with Eastern and Western Catholic chant all seem really prayerful to me. What I’ve been wondering I guess is if it’s “okay” to pray with the music from other religions?? I don’t really see anything wrong with it as the Spirit is always guiding every religious tradition closer to our own…as long as I’m not adopting their prayers?

This is really an interesting question. The only problem with Tibetan chant (Buddhist chant) is that what is chanted is not Christian in intent. Muslim chant uses words and phrases from the Koran. Yes, they are all prayerful in their respective traditions, and I find them appealing and fascinating. Yet, I would wonder if you also consider Latin Chant in prayer and meditation which is in keeping with Christian beliefs.